At the beginning of the twentieth century the German mathematicians Perron and Frobenius published their powerful theorems on non-negative matrices. For many decades these tools were overlooked by all pioneers of linear economics (except Potron in France). I concentrate on Charasoff and Remak, the two pioneers in the German-language literature. Both were mathematicians, but both failed to use Perron-Frobenius mathematics in their economics. I discuss possible reasons for this neglect, and I also draw attention to the communication between different protagonists, the connection between Perron's forgotten Limit Lemma and Charasoff's economics, Remak's bizarre prices, and some interesting archival material.